By MaryMargaret Portera
MSSM Intern
As so many of us have noticed, one of the most notorious ways to get children to pick up a book is to give them a series like “Harry Potter”, “Lord of the Rings”, or “Twilight”. These books have gotten millions of kids of all ages taking time to do some extracurricular reading, something that parents and educators love to see. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding these series since they came out. In the opinion of local educators, the positive effects of reading such books outweigh the possible negative risk of limiting a child’s reading interests in several different genres. Has international media made too much of a big deal with controversy surrounding big titles? It appears so.
Jennifer Rand, high school English teacher at Limestone Community School, thinks that as long as teachers know how to guide students in appropriate ways, it doesn’t matter what they start out reading.
“Finding out what they like about a book can help a teacher steer them toward other kinds of materials,” Rand said. She explained that particular themes are found in several genres of books, so if it is more a particular theme than genre that a student is interested in, it becomes very simple to help them explore several types of books.
Kenneth Hixon, another LCS high school English teacher, welcomes books of the same genre. “As a teacher, I think that reading is great, even if it’s a fixation on a particular book. I think people just need to relax and let them read. Don’t be afraid of literature,” he said.
LCS/MSSM librarian, Norma O’Keefe, agrees. “Reading is reading. It doesn’t matter what it is,” she said. The only problem she finds is the availability of extracurricular reading materials for males. She finds that with popular series such as “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings”, the demand for reading materials in male students goes up.
To see if limited availability of books was affecting the male students in the school, we talked to some LCS students. Freshman Tristan Kirk, sophomore Dean Clavette, junior Joshua Worthen, and senior Justin Thompson seemed to be quite content with the supply of reading materials in the school library. Though all the guys seemed to agree that female-aimed books are quite popular in the library at the moment, Worthen commented, “It’s pretty easy to find things to read in New Releases.” Kirk and Clavette also commented that magazines and non-fiction options were in bountiful supply for male students.
It is estimated that a student needs to learn between 3,000 and 5,000 words to move up just one grade level in reading. Many of the new words that students learn just come from reading, either in school or in their free time. Hixon says that series such as “Harry Potter” being read at an earlier age can greatly benefit students’ reading skills and get a student who might not normally consider reading a hobby interested in reading.
“Reading comes in phases; they start with picture books, then they progress to chapter books, and eventually to novels such as “Harry Potter”. Children who read novels such as “Harry Potter” at a younger age tend to progress faster,” Hixon said. He explains that series are a great way to get kids reading and keep them reading the entire series. With the “Harry Potter” series’ estimated word count of 1,084,170, such a series would certainly contribute to a student’s expansion of vocabulary.
